This invention relates in particularly to the medication of a patient and, more accurately, to a nursing apparatus, which helps the patient to remember when he should take his medicine. However, it will be appreciated that the nursing apparatus and system, according to the present invention, can also be utilised for other reminding purposes than merely reminding of the point of time when medicine should be taken. For example, a diabetic can utilise the nursing apparatus, according to the invention, to make it easier for him to remember the points of time when he should measure the glucose content of his blood. However, the invention will be discussed in the following, by way of example, particularly by means of a patient's medication.
A solution is previously known for reminding a patient of the time when he should take his medicine, wherein a paging device is placed at the patient's disposal. By means of the paging device in question, information on the point of time when he should take his medicine is transmitted to the patient. In other words, at a predetermined point of time the paging device gives an audio signal, whereupon the patient understands that he should take his medicine.
The most significant weakness in the known solution mentioned above is that if the patient does not happen to be in the immediate vicinity of the paging device at the medication time, the patient will not hear the audio signal of the paging device, whereupon he may forget to take his medicine. Another weakness of this known solution is that the paging device adds to the number of things the patient has to carry with him. In other words, in addition to medicine bottles and similar things, the patient should also carry the paging device with him.
In addition, different kinds of medicine dispensers are previously known, which comprise compartments so that, for example, there is a separate compartment for each medication time, wherein the medicine intended to be taken at that particular point of time has been stored. The medication times in turn appear from the text marked in connection with the compartments (e.g., Tuesday: morning/afternoon/evening). Thus, the patient can see with one glance at the dispenser the next time when he should take his medicine. Correspondingly, the danger that the patient would take his medicine twice is avoided because when the patient has once taken his medicine at the determined medication time, the compartment in question is empty and, thus, no medicine can again be taken therefrom.
One of the most significant weaknesses of the known medicine dispenser presented above is that the patient has to remember, on his own initiate, to control the times when he should take his medicine. Naturally, this causes a danger that the medicine is not taken at the predetermined medication time, and it may happen that the medicine is taken considerably later than intended.
Another prior known dispenser is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,327, which has been arranged to be kept on a table, having trays for pills, and actuators for moving a pill from a tray into a pill hopper and activating a flashing light and a buzzer, which are deactivated when the pill hopper is opened for removing the pill. If the pill is not removed within a predetermined time a remote signal, e.g. a telephone call is activated. Also as an accessory to the dispenser is a remote alarm unit, which the user may carry with him/her. The dispenser includes a radio transmitter transmitting to the remote alarm unit, and it is deactivated when the pill hopper is opened. The drawback with this solution is that the range of the transmitter is limited and by the time the user gets a signal on his remote unit, his pills are in the dispenser.